Another Pencil Box

Adrienne's birthday is coming up. I decided to decorate another pencil box, but with brighter colors for her. Here's how it turned out:

First, I painted the inside with turquoise Lumiere paint and let it dry.

Covered the outside of the box (but not the bottom) with DAP sealant using a wad of cheese cloth to create texture. When I took a class by Michael deMeng, he said to use acrylic or latex base, not silicone as silicone doesn't take paint. He also said the paint will show up better on white and not the clear sealant. I tried to put on a thin coating of sealant, so it would dry faster. I also used a heat tool to help speed the drying. Using a heat tool, can add some interesting additional texture: bubbles! Since my sealant was thin, the bubbles are very tiny and blend in well with the rest of the texture.

Once the sealant was dry, I made a mixture of yellow acrylic paints on the outside of the box.

Then created a wash with a mixture of d. purple, p. green & p. blue, brushed this over the box, then removed lots of the color with baby wipes for this lovely mottled look.

Once that was dry, brushed on a layer of gold Lumiere paint mixed with acrylic glazing liquid. Then waited for this layer to dry.

Stamped dragonflies onto the outer surfaces with brown StaZon ink.

Colored the dragonflies, by dabbing my fingers in the different colors and smearing over the stamped images. Make sure to let the paint dry between colors, unless you want the colors to muddy.

Used the p. green and p. blue paints to color the background of the box. The box is now blue & green with golden undertones.

To add a little fun, I wrinkled up some iridescent wrapping paper, ran it through the xyron adhesive and punched out small dragonflies.

I attached these to the top and sides of the box. I like how they change in the light. They might appear as barely seen to bright & shiny. In the picture below, notice how you can barely see the punched out dragonflies on the top of the box, where the ones on the front seem to shine.

For the inside of the box, stamped dragonflies with brown StaZon ink onto both the iridescent gift wrap and on to gold tissue paper.

These were cut out and adhered to the inside top of the box. I also added an "art" quote, along with the admonition "so play".

Hope Adrienne will enjoy this box and find it useful to store art supplies or whatever she likes.